THE TRADE CENTER VERDICT: THE OVERVIEW; 'MASTERMIND' AND DRIVER FOUND GUILTY IN 1993 PLOT TO BLOW UP TRADE CENTER

Concluding what is likely to be the final major trial in the calamitous explosion at the World Trade Center in 1993, a Federal jury in Manhattan yesterday convicted Ramzi Ahmed Yousef of directing and helping carry out the deadly bomb plot to punish the United States for its support of Israel.

After deliberating for three days, the jury also convicted a second man, Eyad Ismoil, whom prosecutors had accused of driving the yellow Ryder van that carried the bomb into the Trade Center's underground garage. Both men fled the country on the night of the bombing, one of the deadliest acts of terrorism ever committed on American soil. The bombing caused six deaths, hundreds of injuries and millions of dollars in property damage, and it forever changed the way many Americans viewed their security.

In contrast to the bedlam that erupted in the courtroom after four lower-level conspirators were convicted in the first Trade Center trial in 1994, Mr. Yousef and Mr. Ismoil stared ahead silently as the jury forewoman announced the guilty verdicts in a loud and direct voice. Both face sentences of life in prison.

Afterward, Federal and city police officials stood on the steps of the Federal courthouse, proudly declaring that the verdict affirmed that terrorism would not be tolerated, but cautioning that there were still strands in the case that would be followed, including a search for a fugitive who prosecutors have said mixed the chemicals for the bomb in an apartment in Jersey City.

''We will continue to pursue all people, with any roles, including financing roles,'' said Mary Jo White, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who prosecuted the previous Trade Center trials and a case last year in which Mr. Yousef was convicted in a conspiracy to blow up American airliners.

She said that while Mr. Yousef has been ''popularly referred to as the mastermind'' of the bomb plot, she thought of him as ''a mastermind.''

James K. Kallstrom, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in charge of the New York office, praised the verdict, saying it sent ''the same message that we've said before: you can run but you can't hide, and we're going to put the resources in to get you.''

Judge Kevin T. Duffy said he would sentence Mr. Yousef, who is believed to be 29, on Jan. 8 for his convictions in both the Trade Center case as well as last year's convictions for the airliner bombing conspiracy. Mr. Ismoil, 26, will be sentenced on Feb. 12. Both men, under the Federal sentencing guidelines, face probable terms of life in prison on five of the charges, each of which involved the use of explosives to kill people, prosecutors said. They were also convicted of conspiracy, assaulting Federal officers and other charges that carry lesser terms.

Mr. Yousef's lawyer, Roy R. Kulcsar, said Mr. Yousef had no reaction to the verdict and that he would appeal it.

''I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed at the verdict after litigating this for so long,'' Mr. Kulcsar said. ''You never know exactly what things you throw out that a jury seizes on. but it was a fair jury and shows that the system itself does work.''

Mr. Ismoil's lawyer, Louis R. Aidala, said he also planned an appeal. Mr. Aidala said that he told his client, '' 'It's not all over.'

''There are numerous legal issues which I think are very viable,'' the lawyer said.

Edward J. Smith, whose pregnant wife, Monica, was killed in the blast along with three co-workers as they sat in a Port Authority lunchroom, said by phone that he feels a sense of great relief at the convictions, ''especially the one guy, Ramzi.''

''With that guy being the mastermind, obviously he's the most important,'' Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Smith, who has since moved to Los Angeles, said he would return to New York for Mr. Yousef's sentencing because it would help to close the case for him and ''to let them know that there are people who care.''

Building on evidence used in the previous terrorism trials, prosecutors were able to augment their case against Mr. Yousef with crucial new testimony. A United States Secret Service agent, Brian G. Parr, told jurors that Mr. Yousef gave a detailed account of his role in the bomb plot, even bragging about it, while being flown back to the United States after his arrest in Pakistan in 1995.

In what was perhaps the most chilling day of testimony in the three-month trial, Mr. Parr told the jury that Mr. Yousef said he had hoped the explosion would topple one tower onto the other, killing tens of thousands of people, to let Americans know they were ''at war.''

Mr. Yousef also said he had driven to a perch on the Jersey City waterfront, watching as the smoke billowed from the Trade Center towers, according to the testimony from Mr. Parr.

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Neither defendant testified during the trial, and among the questions that remain unanswered, even with Mr. Yousef's statement, were the issue of who financed the bomb plot, and whether Mr. Yousef was taking orders from someone else.

During the trial, prosecutors referred to phone calls by Mr. Yousef to ''contacts'' in Iran and Pakistan, but did not identify who they might be.

There was testimony about the cost of the chemicals and supplies that went into the bombing, which amounted to less than $15,000, but it is unclear where that money and other funds originated.

The trial was held under heavy security, and the jurors were kept anonymous by Judge Duffy. They declined, through a courtroom clerk, to be interviewed after their verdict.

But one F.B.I. agent, Tracy Stumpf, who sat through much of the proceedings, said she felt great relief. ''It's been an awfully long time, a couple of months here at the trial,'' she said on the courthouse steps.

It was more than three months ago, on Aug. 5, that two Federal prosecutors, David N. Kelley and Lev L. Dassin, began their presentation at the trial.

Using more than 100 witnesses, they sought to meld often tedious forensic testimony with wrenching accounts by victims and rescue workers of the devastation created by the blast -- the gaping crater, the twisted beams, the crushed bodies, the thousands of workers who streamed outside as smoke shot up the towers like a chimney.

As it had in the first bombing trial, the prosecution focused on the randomness of the blast. Autopsy photographs and graphic testimony from a medical examiner were used to depict the impact of the blast on its victims, like Monica Smith and her three co-workers who were killed as they ate in the lunchroom -- all were found with pinlike abrasions on their faces from rubble that flew at them at thousands of feet per second.

What was new this time was Mr. Parr's dramatic testimony about Mr. Yousef's statement about the bomb plot.

''He told me that it was in retaliation for U.S. aid to Israel,'' Mr. Parr told the jury. ''I asked him why he had not selected an Israeli target, and he said that Israeli targets were too difficult to attack, and he said that if you could not attack your enemy, you should attack the friend of your enemy.''

Although Mr. Yousef's lawyer, Mr. Kulcsar, accused Mr. Parr of lying and suggested the Government had fabricated the purported confession, the statement proved to be devastating to Mr. Yousef's defense. Mr. Kulcsar had little else to work with.

Henry J. DePippo, a former Federal prosecutor who helped try the first World Trade Center case in 1993 and 1994, credited the prosecution team for paring down the evidence presented to the jury. Mr. DePippo also praised the verdicts, but said he doubted they would influence future terrorists.

''I think it's very difficult to conclude that these verdicts will act as a deterrent,'' he said. ''These are people who are trying to make a statement. So the punishment, however severe, wouldn't be a deterrent.''

Like Mr. Yousef, prosecutors said, Mr. Ismoil also gave a statement after his arrest in Jordan in 1995. He admitted driving the van that carried the bomb into the Trade Center, but he said he was an unwitting member of the conspiracy, claiming he thought he was delivering cartons of shampoo. Mr. Ismoil's lawyer, Mr. Aidala, embraced the statement, but it ultimately placed Mr. Ismoil at the heart of the conspiracy and made the prosecution's task easier.

Mr. Ismoil's parents and two of his younger siblings attended parts of the trial and were on hand for the verdict. As the forewoman repeated ''guilty'' 10 times for Mr. Ismoil, his mother sobbed and his 3-year-old sister, seated on her knee, handed tissues to her.

Mr. Ismoil looked back before he was led out of the courtroom, smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture to his family. Mr. Yousef walked out without expression.